Sources Of Stress

Question 1

What are 3 sources of stress

Answer 1

Life changes
Daily hassles
Workplace stress

Question 2

What are life changes

Answer 2

• Major events happen in peoples lives from time to time and cause a individual to experience stress

Question 3

What do these significant life changes require

Answer 3

And adjutant to an individuals behaviour or way of living

Question 4

Examples of life changes

Answer 4

• Divorce
• new job
• jail term
• retirement
• pregnancy
• holiday

Question 5

What is the Standardised measurement tool to measure life changes called

Answer 5

Social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)

Question 6

psychologists who cane up with the SRRS

Answer 6

Holmes and Rahe

Question 7

Describe the SRRS

Answer 7

• scale consists of consist of 43 life events
• individual identifies which events they are experienced within a specific time period eg 3 months
• each event has a score in term of life change units (LCU)
  Eg death of spouse 100 LCU and minor libation of law 11LCU
• score of 150 or more increased chance of stress related health breakdown by 30%

Question 8

Name of Key study within life chnages

Answer 8

Rahe et al

Question 9

rahe et al study

Answer 9

Aim
-used a adapted version of SRRS to to investigate the relationship between stress and illness
- called schedule of recent experiences(SRE)

Ptps
- “Normal pupation” posed to previous studies focused on people already in hospital
- 264 men who where navel and marine personnel serving aboard 3 US navy cruisers

Procedure

• men where asked to complete the SRE for events they ahs experienced in previous 2 years
• SRE adapted to be more specific to military experinces = produced their LCU score
• during 6 - 8 month tour of duty a record was kept on how many times they visited the sick bay as well s type and severity of illness = produced illness score

Findings
- small but significant positive correlation between LCU score n the illness score of +1.18
- those who scored low on S had low levels of illness

Conclusion
- support link between life changes and physical illness plausible link of stress
- overall amount of emotional and mental effort required to deal with a life event that creates stress

Question 10

Evaluation of life changes

Answer 10

• studies using SRRS correlation HOWEVER a correlation between life changes unit score and I’ll halt does not prove that from life event cause illness. All manner of other reasons could be used to explain the link, eg general ill health could be causing the stress of life events
• SSRS assume stressor affects people the same way, Iife events on the SRRS
  Will have different meaning and cause different amounts of stress to different people eg degree of divorce
• suggests individual differences in the extent to which people perceive the life events as stressful

Question 11

Who designed a hassles and uplift scale (HSUP)

Answer 11

Kanner et al

Question 12

What does the HSUP consist of

Answer 12

117 items

Question 13

What are daily hassles

Answer 13

Irritating, frustrating, distressing demands that to some degree characterise everyday transactions with the environment

Question 14

Examples of daily hassles

Answer 14

Financial problems, arguments, losing items

Question 15

What are daily uplifts

Answer 15

• Positive experiences that we have every day
• can counteract the damaging effects of stress

Question 16

Exsamples of daily uplifts

Answer 16

Completing task, getting enough sleep, compliments

Question 17

Why do daily hassles cause more stress than life changes

Answer 17

Accumulation creates a build up of minor daily stressors results in more serious stress reaction eg depression and anxiety

Question 18

Kanner et al key study

Answer 18

Procedure:
- 100 American ptp 52 F + 48 M all white, well educated and middle class
- asked to circle the events on both scales that they had experienced the previous month and rate each according to severity for hassles and frequency for uplifts
- continue to do so once a month for 9 months
- each ptp also completed a life scale event scale 6 months proceeding the beginning of the study and also for the 2 yearly periods prior to that and again at the end of the study
- 2 measures used to assess the psychological well being of the ptps
- Hopkins symptom checker asses depression ad anxiety
- Bradbury morale scale - assess ositive and negative emotion
- completed thee every month

Findings
- hassles scale tended to me more accurate predictor of stressor related problems eg anxiety and depression than SRRS
- uplifts had a positive effect on the stress levels of women but not men

Question 19

Evaluation of daily stressor

Answer 19

• individual differences not considered = perceive ad react to stress differently = some may be able to cope better than others
• correlational, do not prove that the stress from ally hassle is causing the illness eg cold may be a hassle but virus is causing the sickness, illness is actually causing the hassle

Question 20

Daily hassles vs life change - evaluation

Answer 20

• Kanner -daily hassles greater source of stress supported by other research which found daily hassles were linked to greater psychological and physical dysfunction to ere major negative life events

Question 21

Amplification effect

Answer 21

• Life changes and daily stressors combine cause stress
• dealing with mental and physical effort of dealing with life change that makes us more susceptible to the effects of daily hassles
• more vulnerable to hassles having amplification effects

Question 22

2 causes for workplace stress

Answer 22

Lack of control and workload

Question 23

Lack of control

Answer 23

Not being able to manage your own workload

Question 24

Workload

Answer 24

Work overload eg number of hours an individual spends working

Question 25

Key study for lack of control

Answer 25

Marmot et al
Aim: relationship between low job control stress in the workplace and illness

Procedure:
- 2 studies, collected data from a sample of over 10,000 civil servants working at whitehall
- assumed low pay grade employees would experience low job control stress
- completed questionnaire = info about their h job role, lifestyle, choices, socioeconomic status and physical health
- researcher assessed the level ofjobcontrolby self report questionnaire and by assessments by personal managers and this was compared to levels of stress related illness

Findings:
- clear differences found between the workers pay grade type in terms of mortality rates and illness
- less control 4x more likely to die of a heart attack
- suffer from stress related illness eg a cancer, ulcers even when other factors eg diet taken into account

Conclusion
- lack of control linked to stress related illness

Question 26

evaluation of lack of control

Answer 26

• correlation = appears an association between low control and stress related illness
• cannot assume low control is causing illness
• workers with poor health are likely to achieve higher grades where control is greater which would explain finding just as well

Question 27

Key study for workload

Answer 27

Johansson et al
Procedure
- 28 Swedish sawmill workers
- high risk group (low control and high workloads) compared with low risk group
- matched on factors such as eduction and job experience
- recorded daily levels of adrenaline Nora adrenaline in the workers on work days and weekends to assess stress
- obtained self report of job satisfaction and illness

Findings
- high risk group = higher illness and higher level of adrenaline in urine compared to low risk
- self report confirmed high risk had greater workload and lower control

Conclusion
- stress from being overloaded at work can make people Ill
- I,privation is stress is reduced then people will not get ill and productivity of company can be improved

Question 28

Evaluation of workload

Answer 28

Strengths
- factors of workload and lack of control combined to for, job strain model - recognise is due to a combination of both new version of job strain model includes lack of social support which didn’t do this previous
Supported by Research
- found 17000 women in usa over a period ten years
- those in strain 40% greater risk of cardiovascular disorder and 88% increased risk of suffering a heart attack

Weaknesses
- don’t acknowledge individual differences as we have different perception of our ability to cope with high workload and lack of control